Rejected for Being Barren, Now the Alphas Kneel novel · Chapter 3 of 24

Chapter 3: Six Questions

The pups interrogate the alpha at dinner while Rhea keeps him on the porch; the old Healer appears at the door and says Rhea was never barren.

Lucan ate rabbit stew at my kitchen table with six children staring at him.

I had not planned to feed him.

But Bram said, "He can't stand in the yard all night, Mama, he's too big."

The smallest girl said, "He can have my bread," and that was the end of my plan.

The Ashfall wolves camped at the treeline, where I could see their fire through the window.

Lucan sat on the one chair strong enough for him.

He kept his elbows pulled in so he would not knock anyone.

"Do you have a wolf?" one of the twins asked.

"I do," Lucan said.

"What color?"

"Grey. Mostly."

"Ours is gold," the other twin said. "Mama's is brown and she's very fast."

"I know she is," Lucan said. "I watched her outrun a snow leopard once."

I turned from the stove. "You did not watch that."

"I watched you leave me behind on a ridge," he said, with a straight face. "It was humiliating."

The twins burst out laughing.

I felt my mouth start to curve and made it stop.

Bram had said nothing since dinner began.

He had his spoon in one fist and his eyes on Lucan's face, and he was frowning.

"Mama said you were brave," Bram said at last.

"Did she?"

"Were you?"

"I was scared most of the time," Lucan said. "I just kept going."

Bram thought about it and seemed to find it acceptable.

Then he leaned across the table and bit Lucan on the sleeve.

It was not a hard bite.

It was a test.

Lucan did not flinch.

He put his big hand out slowly, palm up, and let Bram sniff it.

"That's rude," I said.

"He smells right," Bram said, with his mouth full of wool.

The quiet boy, who hardly ever spoke, slid off his seat and walked around the table.

He climbed into Lucan's lap without asking and went to sleep.

Lucan looked at me over the child's head.

His eyes were bright and wet, and he did not try to hide it.

I picked up the dishes so I would not have to see.

By the time I had all six in their beds in the loft, the wolves' fire had burned down to coals.

Lucan stood at the foot of the ladder, waiting.

"You can sleep on the porch," I said.

"Wren."

"My name is Rhea. Wren was somebody I made up to get through the winter."

"Rhea," he said, and the way he said it made the back of my neck go warm. "I'll take the porch."

I closed the door between us and stood with my back against it.

I could hear him settle on the boards, the creak of the old planks taking his weight.

I could smell cedar smoke and snow on him, and under it the scent I had spent ten years not remembering.

I put my fingers to my own shoulder, where his teeth had gone in.

The mark was still there. It had never faded.

I did not know what to do with that, so I lay down on the cot beside the loft ladder and told myself I would not sleep.

I slept almost at once.

At some hour past midnight, something scratched at the door.

I was up with the poker in my hand before I knew I had moved.

Lucan was already on his feet outside.

I heard him say, very low, "Easy. Easy, old woman."

I pulled the door open.

On my porch stood a small, bent woman in a grey shawl, leaning on a stick.

She had a cloth bag clutched to her chest and a fresh cut across her cheek.

I knew her at once.

She was the pack Healer who had delivered half of Stormbrook.

She had pressed her cold thumbs to my wrist when I was nineteen and told me to be brave.

"Rhea," she said. Her voice shook. "Child, I have been three days finding you."

"You told me I would never have pups," I said. My hands were not steady on the poker.

The old woman shook her head slowly.

"I never told you that," she said. "I never said a word of it, child. Your brother did."

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